Entertainment News

TLC Explains why there is no Left Eye on their 'Waterfalls' remake

(Yahoo!) - TLC members Rozanda “Chilli” Thomas and Tionne “T-Boz” Watkins say there is a good reason why late group member Lisa “Left Eye” Lopes does not appear on the 20th anniversary remake of their signature song, “Waterfalls.”

They were denied the right to use Lopes’s vocals.

“We don’t own the master recording rights to Lisa’s raps on any of our music, and our requests to gain the rights so far have been denied,” Chilli said in a statement released exclusively to Yahoo! Music. “With the Japanese anniversary edition, we were forced to use creative ways to honor Lisa’s memory and celebrate this milestone with our fans.”

The new version features Japanese pop star Namie Amuro rapping and singing a variation of Lopes’s lyrics on the song.

The omission upset Lopes’s sister Reigndrop. "I did not know about it until a fan posted it online," Reigndrop told TMZ. "I mean it would have been nice if they would have given us a heads up before being surprised."

Reigndrop added that her mother was upset by T-Boz and Chilli’s decision because she felt that the song would have honored her daughter’s memory had it included her vocals.

Lopes’s family was notified, according to T-Boz. “Our management spoke to Ron Lopes (Lisa’s brother) prior to the record being released to let him know that Namie would be performing to ‘Lisa’s’ lyrics,” she said in the statement. “We have and always will protect our sister’s legacy as TLC consists of the three of us collectively. Although we have and will collaborate with other artists, there will never be a replacement for Lisa or any members in TLC.”